“The most important week is your first week.—It only takes 3 runs to get started!”
It’s time to learn by doing. Here is a first run instruction list that will ease you into running—a “shake down cruise” for your body.
A caffeine boost?
To get the central nervous system ready for exercise, many runners have a cup of coffee, tea, or diet drink about an hour before they run.
If your blood sugar level is low due to any reason (especially in the afternoon), eat about half of an energy bar or drink 100-200 calories of a sports drink—especially one that has about 20% protein—about 25-30 minutes before the start of the run. If you have problems with caffeine, don’t use it.
Your running stride
Run with more of a shuffle: feet low to the ground, lightly touching. Don’t lift your knees. In general, make it easy on yourself. For more suggestions on easier running, see the running form section of this book.
The first run
| 1. | Put on a pair of comfortable walking shoes (running shoes if you have them). |
| 2. | Put on light, comfortable clothes—see “clothing thermometer” in this book. |
| Note: clothes don’t have to be designed for exercise—just comfortable. | |
| 3. | Walk for 3 minutes at a slow walk to warm the muscles up gently. |
| 4. | For 2 more minutes, continue to walk slowly, or increase to a normal walk pace if you wish. |
| 5. | Then alternate 5-10 seconds of running with 1-2 minutes of comfortable walking. |
| 6. | Do this for 5-10 minutes—no more. |
| 7. | Walk slowly for 5-10 minutes as a “warm down”. |
Warm-up:
By walking for 3 minutes, very slowly, then walking at a comfortable, but slightly faster pace for 2 minutes, you will gently move the tendons and ligaments through the necessary range of motion. At the same time, you’ll send blood into the muscles, as you get the heart, lungs, and circulation system ready for gentle exertion. Your nervous system works better when you have at least 5 minutes of easy movement as a warmup. If you need more minutes of slow walking, continue walking until you feel warmed up.
What? No stretching?
That’s right. I see no reason to stretch before a run, unless you have some unusual problem that has been helped by stretching. The Ilio-tibial band injury is one of these exceptions. I’ve found after working with over 150,000 runners through the years that stretching causes many injuries with no benefits.
Breathing—no huffing and puffing
Don’t let the level of exertion get to the point that you must huff and puff. You want to be able to talk or sing as you do your walking and running. This is called the “talk test.”
Warm down:
Just walk easily for 5-10 minutes. It is important that you keep walking after you do any running. Don’t ever go right into the shower after running vigorously, and don’t stand around immediately after exertion either. This is a stress on your heart.
The day after
The next day, after your first run, just walk easily for 10-15 minutes.
The second run
Two days after your first run, it’s your “game day” again. As long as you have recovered quickly from the first run, repeat the same routine as the first time, but extend the run-walk section by 3-5 minutes. If you haven’t fully recovered, walk more and run less. In other words, extend your warm up to 8 minutes of walking. Then run for 3-5 seconds, and walk slowly for 2 minutes.
Alternate
Continue to do run-walk one day, and a day of just walking the next. The time that you spend walking, on the walking only-days, could be extended 5 minutes each day. As long as the legs and body are recovering, you could continue increasing the run-walk segment by an additional 3-5 minutes until the total reaches 30 minutes. See the schedule that follows this chapter.
Regularity
Regularity is extremely important during the first 8 weeks. If you run, even a little, every other day, your body makes the adaptations, and starts to look forward to the experience. If you wait 3 days between runs, you start to lose the adaptations, and your body complains at the beginning of each run. Getting into a habit is the most helpful way to make it past 3 weeks.
It’s OK to skip some of the walk days
If you really have to leave out some of your exercise days, let them be walk days. Try to make it to each of the running “appointments.”
Reward yourself!
After you have finished your first week of three sessions, congratulate yourself with a special running outfit, meal, trip to a great run-walk area, etc. Remember that rewards can be very powerful.
Congratulations! You’re on your way running!